Allan Lichtman

Allan Lichtman in 2010.

Allan Jay Lichtman (born April 4, 1947) is an American political historian who teaches at American University in Washington, D.C. He ran in the 2006 Maryland senate race for the seat vacated by Paul Sarbanes.

Early life, education, and family

Lichtman was born in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School. Lichtman received his B.A. degree from Brandeis University in History in 1967, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude while also running track and wrestling for the school. Lichtman received his Ph.D. from Harvard University as a Graduate Prize Fellow in 1973, also in history.

Educational career

Lichtman began teaching at American University in 1973, rising to chair of the History Department, and was named Scholar/Professor of the Year in 1993.

Outside of the classroom, Lichtman has testified as an expert witness on civil rights in more than 70 cases for the U.S. Department of Justice and for civil rights groups such as the NAACP, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also consulted for Vice President Al Gore and Senator Edward Kennedy. He assisted the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigation into voting irregularities in Florida during the 2000 election,[1] submitting an extensive report of his statistical analysis of balloting problems. Lichtman concluded "there were major racial disparities in ballot rejection rates".[2] However, Lichtman made no claim that the rejections were unfair in any way, just that the rate was higher for minority blacks than for whites. He was criticized harshly for not making such a claim.

Awards and honors

Lichtman has received numerous awards at American University during his career. Most notably, he was named Distinguished Professor of History in 2011 and Outstanding Scholar/Teacher for 1992-93, the highest faculty award at that school. Honors include:

On being appointed distinguished professor: "AU reserves this recognition for only a very few faculty, those whose scholarship has, over the long arc of their careers, been so deeply influential that it has remade their fields of knowledge. This rings true for both Distinguished Professors Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman," says Pamela Nadell, chair of the Department of History. "The Department of History celebrates their appointments, and takes great pride in becoming what well [sic] be the only department on campus with two Distinguished Professors."[4]

Description of distinguished professor from the American University website: "The rank of Distinguished Professor honors American University faculty who have produced extraordinary and exceptional scholarship that has earned national and international renown...The rank of Distinguished Professor is awarded on a highly selective basis; it is not a routine promotion for faculty who have already achieved the rank of Professor."[5]

Also, in the early 1980s while living in California as a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology, Lichtman had a 17-show stint on the game show Tic Tac Dough. He won $100,000 during his time on the show.[6]

Author and commentator

Lichtman is the author or co-author of nine books and more than 100 articles. He is best known for the "Keys" system, presented in his books The Thirteen Keys to the Presidency and The Keys to the White House. The system uses thirteen historical factors to predict whether or not the popular vote in the election for President of the United States will be won by the candidate of the party holding the presidency (regardless of whether the President is the candidate). The keys were selected based on their correlations with the presidential election results from 1860 through 1980, using statistical methods adapted from the work of geophysicist Vladimir Keilis-Borok for predicting earthquakes. The system then correctly predicted the popular vote winner in each of the elections of 1984 through 2012, including 2000.[7]

Lichtman has provided commentary for networks and cable channels such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.[8][9][10] He was the regular political analyst for CNN Headline News. He is also a fifteen-year columnist for Maryland's Journal and Gazette newspapers. He has lectured across the world and been cited hundreds of times by leading newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun.

2006 Maryland Senate race

On September 28, 2005, Lichtman formally announced his candidacy for the United States Senate from Maryland. He ran as a progressive, opposing the War in Iraq and calling for an immediate and safe withdrawal of U.S. troops. One of his ground-breaking, platform proposals was getting off fossil fuels in order to help slow climate change, and for a variety of other reasons.

Lichtman used innovative approaches to reach voters and supporters during the campaign including MySpace and a web ad where he jumped in a lake. When he and other candidates were not invited by the League of Women Voters to a debate, Lichtman went to the Maryland Public Television studio and protested; he, his wife, and campaign volunteer Gail Dobson were arrested.[11][12] On October 19, 2006, the three were found Not Guilty on all charges.

Lichtman lost in the primary to Ben Cardin. According to the final tally, he received 6,919, or 1.2% of the vote, landing him in 6th place in a field of 18. In October 2012, the Washington Post reported that he was still paying off a mortgage he took out in order to help fund his campaign.[13]

Books

References

  1. ↑ "Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election". U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. June 2001. Archived from the original on 23 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  2. ↑ "Supplemental Report on the Racial Impact of the Rejection of Ballots Cast in Florida's 2000 Presidential Election and in Response to the Statement of the Dissenting Commissioners and Report by Dr. John Lott Submitted to the United States Senate Committee on Rules in July 2001". U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. July 2001. Archived from the original on 24 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  3. ↑ http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/2008_nonfiction_finalist_white_protestant_nation_by_allan_j._lichtman/
  4. ↑ https://www.american.edu/cas/news/richard-breitman-allan-lichtman-distinguished-professors.cfm
  5. ↑ http://www.american.edu/provost/academicaffairs/faculty-manual.cfm
  6. ↑ Breslev, Dia, "AU Prof Gets the 'Dough Lichtman Wins $100,000," American University Eagle, February 27, 1981.
  7. ↑ "Gore Wins!(At least that's what the model says)Quantitative historian Allan Lichtman and statistician Jack Moshman use OR techniques to predict elections". OR/MS Today. October 2000.
  8. ↑ "Fox News broadcast".
  9. ↑ "MSNBC broadcast".
  10. ↑ "CNN broadcast".
  11. ↑ Stephanie Desmon (August 31, 2006). "Excluded Candidates Cry Foul on Debate". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  12. ↑ "Anti-Crazy Bias Rears Its Ugly Head". Wonkette. September 1, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-07. Archived June 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ Reilly, Corinne (2 October 2012). "In congressional races, underdogs abound, but why". WashingtonPost.com (Washington Post). Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  14. ↑ http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/2008_nonfiction_finalist_white_protestant_nation_by_allan_j._lichtman/
  15. ↑ Schuessler, Jennifer (8 March 2013). "Book 'FDR and the Jews' Looks at Roosevelt-Holocaust Issues". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ http://www.thenation.com/article/175315/fdrs-jewish-problem
  17. ↑ Oshinsky, David (5 April 2013). "'FDR and the Jews,' by Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman". The New York Times.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.